The series will focus on the mysterious Shadow, a man who is released
from prison a few days early after serving a three-year sentence for
bank robbery when his beloved wife Laura is killed in a car accident.
Flying home for the funeral, Shadow is seated next to a man who
introduces himself only as Mr. Wednesday, and this man knows more about
Shadow’s life, both past and present, than is possible. Shadow comes to
learn that Wednesday is, in fact, the god Odin
of Norse mythology and that all of the gods that mankind has ever
believed in are alive in human form and live among regular people.
Shadow is soon thrust into a gathering conflict between the Old gods and
the so-called “New gods”, the gods of money and technology who believe
there is no longer room on Earth for the old gods.

Fan fiction, fan art, the way female fans celebrate what they love: this stuff isn’t a secret anymore – and it shouldn’t be a punch line anymore, either. It’s a big messy world full of amateur writing and unedited work, but it’s also got of some of the best fiction I’ve ever read, published or otherwise. You don’t have to participate in it to afford it even a modicum of respect. I’ll be the first to volunteer if you ever want to learn. But if you’re not interested in that, politely decline to answer. It’s easy to blame the celebrity, dragged into answering these questions. But really, the fault lies with the media. Please, please, please journalists: stop asking celebrities about fan fiction. Unless you’re having an in-depth conversation about fictional constructions of the actors’ personae (like the very one you’ll be presenting in your piece?), it serves no purpose. Non-fans likely don’t get it; fans think you look like a bully – because you are.

EW has learned exclusively that Orlando Jones and Demore Barnes have joined the ensemble of Starz’s hotly-anticipated fantasy series American Gods, based on the cult classic novel by Neil Gaiman. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are adapting the book into series and serving as showrunners.

Jones (Sleepy Hollow) will play Mr. Nancy on the show, one of the gods Shadow meets – and, arguably, befriends – during his visit to the House on the Rock, a.k.a. the American landmark where the gods assemble. Nancy is the human form of the West African trickster god Anansi, who is classically depicted as a spider and has a penchant for telling stories. (He’s got a great one about a Tiger and a Monkey, if you ever need him to warm up a crowd.)

Mr. Nancy is also the eponymous character in Gaiman’s American Gods spin-off follow-up, Anansi Boys, which follows his two sons.

As for Barnes, who previously starred on 12 Monkeys, he’s set to play Mr. Ibis, “the keeper of stories, past and present, and he recounts them with great relish.” Mr. Ibis runs a funeral parlor, is fascinated with death, and briefly takes Shadow under his wing.

American Gods tells the story of an ex-con named Shadow (Ricky Whittle) who gets released from prison and, thanks to the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), finds himself caught up in a war of worship between old, immigrant gods whose power has diminished over generations and America’s new deities of technology and consumerism.

As the show enters its fourth episode of production, the ensemble has shaped up incredibly well, given fan reaction already. Jones and Barnes join a cast that includes recently announced Gillian Anderson as Media; Emily Browning as Laura Moon; Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney; Yetide Badaki as Bilquis; Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya; Peter Stormare as Czernobog; Bruce Langley and Crispin Glover as the Technical Boy and Mr. World, respectively; Mousa Kraish as the Jinn; Chris Obi as Mr. Jacquel; and Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith.

The series premieres on Starz in 2017, with David Slade directing the pilot, written by Fuller and Green.

I like the slash, and I think I like it because I feel there are so many people who are under-represented—or not represented at all—in mainstream Hollywood entertainment. I really enjoy the fan fiction that embraces character and themes that showcase those people—their love, their desires, their passions. I think that’s really cool—and I hope the show as it continues embraces that more, because that’s an opportunity to tell stories that other people might not be familiar with. I mean, there’s slash of me and Ichabod… that’s like, ‘What?!’ and then I read it and it was really well-written. I get it—it’s another way to go but it’s no less valid than what we’re doing and it’s certainly interesting, so I really get a kick out of that. To read fan fiction and to see fan art and to watch other people’s artistry paint different colors on top of what we’re doing… how can you be mad at that? That’s just completely awesome!